THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm reception. Ben, you always
draw a good crowd. (Laughter.) He claims he went to this high
school.

MR. STEIN: I did -- class of '62.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, pretty soon you'll be receiving a Social
Security check.

MR. STEIN: I hope so. I hope my son and my grandchildren will,
too.

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, thank you all for giving us a chance to
come and visit with you about Social Security. Before I begin, I do
want to thank Laurie Checco, who is the Business Manager at Montgomery
Blair High School. Thanks for letting us come by; I appreciate you
opening this beautiful facility. (Applause.)

I want to thank Mark Mackey and Linda Hollands, who are part of the
National Retirement Planning Coalition for sponsoring this event. It's
important that there be an open dialogue about Social Security, the
problems inherent with Social Security and the opportunities to fix
Social Security. And that's why I've come today. So thank you all for
sponsoring this.

You know, some in Washington wish I hadn't brought it up.
(Laughter.) They said, why would you bring up Social Security? I mean,
after all, we might have to run for election. (Laughter.) Why would
you bring up such a difficult topic? And the answer is because I see a
problem and I believe my job is to address problems and not pass those
problems on to future Presidents, future Congresses or future
generations. And here's why I see a problem.

Before I describe the problem, I do want to congratulate one of my
predecessors, Franklin Roosevelt, for doing something really smart and
really wise, and that is setting up a safety net for retirees. Social
Security has worked. (Applause.) It's been a very important part of a
lot of people's lives. And the first thing I want to say to those who
receive a Social Security check today: nothing changes for you; you're
in good shape. The system is solvent for people receiving a check.
The reason I say that is because I understand how politics works. You
see, the surest way to stop something from going forward or stop a
dialogue or stop reform if reform is needed, is to scare people. And
in the past, people have used the Social Security issue to scare
seniors. They say, old George W. gets elected, you're not going to get
your check -- or, if this goes through, you're not going to get your
check. You know, that's kind of shameless politics.

And so I'm spending a lot of time not only describing the problem,
but assuring seniors that no matter what the rhetoric is coming out of
Washington, you are going to get your check. So you need to tell your
grandparents they're going to get their checks. All of us, whether
you're Republican or Democrat, know how important this program is to a
lot of seniors around the country. The question is not whether the
seniors will get their checks. The question is whether younger
Americans will be able to have a safety net, a retirement system just
like today's generation gets.

And here's why we have a problem. There's a lot of people, like
me, getting ready to retire. (Laughter.) In my case, I reach
retirement age in 2008 -- which turns out to be a fairly convenient
date. (Laughter.) Get it? (Laughter and applause.)

About 70 million-plus of us are getting ready to retire. You're so
old, you don't even qualify as a baby boomer. (Laughter.)

MR. STEIN: Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: No, don't worry about it. (Laughter.)

There's now about 40 million retirees. So you get a sense of the
problem. In other words, a whole bunch of people are getting ready to
retire, and we're living longer than the previous generation, and we've
been promised greater benefits than the previous generation.

And so you've got a lot of people getting ready to retire who have
been promised greater benefits. The problem we have is that there are
fewer people paying into the system. In 1950, there were about 16
workers for every beneficiary. Today, there's 3.3 beneficiary --
workers for every beneficiary. Soon there will be two workers for
every beneficiary. You've got a lot of people living longer, getting
greater benefits with fewer people paying for us. And the system, as a
result, starts going into the red when the baby boomer generation
begins to retire.

As a matter of fact, it starts going into the red in 2017. I know
that sounds like a long time for people in Washington. It's not very
long if you're entering the work place. In other words, you're paying
into a system that starts going broke in 2017, into the red. And every
year thereafter, after 2017, the problem gets worse. In 2027, it's
$200 billion in the hole; in 2030, it's $300 billion in the hole.

See, Social Security is not a trust. It's a pay-as-you-go system:
you pay, and we go ahead and spend. You pay payroll taxes. You work
hard, you put payroll taxes into the system, and the federal government
spends your payroll taxes on retirees, and with money left over, it
goes for government programs. And all that's left is a file cabinet of
IOU's. In other words, some think that we're taking your money and
we're holding it for you and then we're going to give it back to you
when you retire -- that's not the way it works. It's a pay-as-you-go
system, and the pay-as-you-go system starts going into the red. And it
gets worse and worse and worse.

As a matter of fact, every year we wait it's going to cost us $600
billion to fix it -- $600 billion a year to fix it. In other words,
the longer we wait, the harder it is for me to be able to look at
younger Americans and say, the money you're putting in the system is
going to be there for you.

Now, if you're older, you're going to get your check. If you're
born prior to 1950, you're fine. If you're a younger American, you
need to pay attention to this issue. I think this is a generational
issue. Grandmothers and granddads have nothing to worry about; their
grandchildren have got a lot to worry about.

My strategy has been to travel the country saying we've got a
problem. I think pretty well most Americans now understand we do have
a problem. And the reason I knew that was the first step that needed
to be taken is because I have confidence that once people realize
there's a problem, then they'll ask their elected representatives to do
something about it. And I was pleased to see some members, Republican
members of the House and the Senate have started laying out ideas.
I've been laying out ideas.

I think it's time for the leadership in the Democrat Party to start
laying out ideas. See, the American people expect those of us who've
come to Washington, D.C. to negotiate in good faith on behalf of the
people if there's a problem. People ought to say, here's what I'm for,
not what they're against. People ought to be willing to step up and
lead, as opposed to playing partisan politics. That's what the people
want. (Applause.)

I believe future generations ought to receive benefits equal to or
greater than the previous generation. I like the idea that has been
put on the table by a Democrat economist named Pozen. It's called
progressive indexing -- it says if you're the poorest of Americans or
lower-income Americans, you get your benefits calculated by wage
increase. If you're the richest Americans, top 1 percent, you get your
benefits calculated by inflation, increase of inflation. In other
words, everybody's benefits go up. The wealthier people's benefits
will go up slower than the poorer benefits. And in between, there's a
scale. That's called progressive indexing. It basically says we can
make a commitment to poor Americans that if you worked all your life,
you're not going to retire into poverty. I like that idea. I think
that makes a lot of sense. (Applause.)

This progressive indexing solves -- permanently solves most of the
problems in Social Security. It doesn't solve it all, but it takes --
it permanently solves most of the problem. And there are other ideas
on the table. I asked people to bring them forth -- you've got a good
idea, step up with it, I'm more than willing to listen.

What I'm not going to listen to is this partisan bickering in
Washington, D.C. People really expect us to do different. 2 They
expect us to think differently and act differently when you see a
problem, and we have a problem. (Applause.)

I've got another idea that we're going to discuss today. It's an
idea that some feel uncomfortable about -- I understand that -- but I
think it's certainly worth the dialogue. And that is, on the one hand,
we ought to permanently solve the solvency issue for Social Security so
I can -- we can -- all of us involved in politics can look at younger
workers and say, you're fixing to pay into a system that will not only
take care of baby boomers like me, but there will be a retirement
system for you.

I also think we ought to make the system a better deal for younger
workers, and that means giving younger workers the option, the ability,
if they so choose, to take some of their money -- after all, it's your
money in the payroll taxes -- and set it aside in what we call a
voluntary personal savings account. It's an opportunity --
(applause.) I like the idea of giving somebody a chance to build a
nest egg that the government can't spend. In other words, remember the
-- (applause.) What you have left in the Social Security system today
is a file cabinet with IOUs. In West Virginia, I actually went and saw
the file cabinet, and I'm proud to report the paper is there.
(Laughter.)

I like the idea of encouraging people to own assets that they get
to manage. It makes economic sense, if you're a younger worker, and
you realize that we're taking your money and we're putting it in a
system that may not be around for you, you ought to demand change. But
let me tell you what else we're doing. We're taking your money and
putting it into a system that's yielding about a 1.8 percent return.
That's a lousy deal.

So I think you ought to be allowed to take some of your money, set
it aside in a voluntary personal savings account so you can invest in
bonds or stocks -- bonds and stocks, whatever you so choose. You can't
put it in the lottery, by the way. There will be go-bys. In other
words, the government is going to say, we're not going to let you take
it to the track; we're not going to let you -- we're not going to let
you take wild risks. People do this all the time, by the way, and they
get a better rate of return than 1.8 percent. And if you can get a
better rate of return than 1.8 percent, that compounds over time. And
it's that compounding of interest that helps create wealth and security
in retirement. The voluntary personal accounts will complement that
which is available to you through the Social Security system. But
you're going to get a better deal on your own money than in the current
system.

I like the idea of people having assets that they can pass on from
one generation to the next. I reject this notion that the investor
class is confined to only a certain group of people. I think investors
ought to be around -- (applause.)

And, finally, I believe this idea ought to be debated because the
system is not fair, in this sense. If you're a -- if you're a spouse,
and your other spouse -- and your -- if you're a husband and your wife
works, or you're a wife and your husband works, and you're both
contributing in the Social Security system, if one of you dies early --
if you die before 62 -- what you get is you get a burial benefit from
the government. In other words, you've been working all your life,
you're putting money in the Social Security system -- both of you have
been -- one of you dies early, and the government says, here, fine,
here's a burial benefit. And then when you get to retirement age, you
get to choose. You get to choose the benefits of your spouse or your
own benefits, whichever might be higher, but you don't get both.

Think about that. So you've got two folks contributing into the
system, one dies early, and by the time the survivor reaches retirement
age, he or she gets to say, I either get my spouse's benefits, or my
benefits, but not both. In other words, one of -- the deceased spouse
has contributed to a system and the money has just gone away. That's
not fair. It's not fair to say to working people, work all your life,
and the money you've contributed is not around if you happen to die
early. It's not fair to the spouse, it's not fair to the family. If
we allow younger workers -- if they so choose -- to take some of their
own money. Now, remember, I keep saying, "if they so choose" to take
some of their own money and set it up in an asset that grows over
time. If that were to happen, if somebody were to die early, at least
there's an asset to pass on to help the spouse.

See, the system is not fair today. It's not fair for younger
workers to know it's going broke and you have to contribute into it.
It's not fair for people living today, who worked in their system all
their -- paid into the system and there's not an asset upon death,
early death. It's not right. And I think now is the time to get
something done.

By the way, the idea of voluntary personal savings accounts is not
new. You're going to hear from some young investors. Investing is not
new. It's new for older people -- you know, when we grew up, there
wasn't 401(k)s or IRAs. These are relatively new concepts. I bet
there was no 401(k)s when you grew up. You look like a baby boomer.
(Laughter.) Yes, okay, you.

But the idea of, you know, saying if you work for the government
you can take some of your own money and put it aside in a voluntary
personal savings account isn't new in Washington. I don't know if you
know this or not, but the Federal Thrift Savings Plan -- that's the
plan that the Congress set up for themselves and people who work in the
federal government -- it says if you want to, you can set aside some of
your own money in a mix of bonds and stocks.

And so my attitude is to folks around the country is, if it's a
good idea for congressmen and senators, in other words, if they think
it's a good enough idea for themselves, it ought to be a good enough
idea for workers all across the country. (Applause.)

Anyway, I see a problem, I'm willing to talk about solutions. I'm
looking forward to working with both Republicans and Democrats to get
the job done. And I want to thank our panelists for joining us to help
make some very important points. See, this is an education process
we're going through. People have got to be educated. There's a lot of
messages getting out there on the TV screens. You know, people saying
this and people saying that. Once people understand there's a problem,
once the grandmothers and granddads understand they're going to get
their check, they can relax, then they're going to start asking people
who have been elected to office, what are you going to do about my
grandkids?

You don't have a grandkid yet, do you?

MR. STEIN: Thank God, our son is only 17. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's good. You went to high school here?

MR. STEIN: I went to Montgomery Blair High School, class of '62.
The best class ever.

THE PRESIDENT: Really? That's good. (Laughter.)

MR. STEIN: I'm concerned about it. I'm extremely concerned about
it.

THE PRESIDENT: You've been talking about it for a while.

MR. STEIN: I talk about it -- I represent two groups. I represent
the National Retirement Planning Coalition, which helps people plan for
retirement. And I'm also representing for the gangstas all across the
world -- (laughter) -- hidden corners in the low-lows, girl.
(Laughter.) That's rap music, Mr. President. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. (Laughter.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: I'll tell you an interesting story. I was at an
automobile plant in Mississippi, and I -- there you go. (Laughter.)

MR. STEIN: He's from Mississippi.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, okay, two of you. (Laughter.) And I was with
the line workers. And I said, how many of you all have 401(k)s? In
other words, how many of you are managing your own money? And I bet 90
-- I didn't count, but a lot, 90 percent of the hands went up. These
are people from all walks of life, all income groups. It's amazing how
quick you become financially literate when you're watching your own
money, in other words.

But let's talk about financial literacy, and let's talk about this
notion of risk. Let's talk about whether or not a person who is
nervous about stocks and bonds has the capacity to absorb all these
fancy words you're talking about.

MR. STEIN: But they're not -- they turn out not to be fancy
words.

THE PRESIDENT: They sound fancy.

MR. STEIN: Well, it isn't fancy. (Laughter.) A stock is a share
in ownership of a corporation, a broad index of stocks is a share in
hundreds, thousands of corporations. And the values of those
investments will fluctuate from year to year. But over long periods of
time, they will do incredibly well. I mean, here's a statistic -- I
know you don't like statistics.

THE PRESIDENT: No, I like them, yes. Particularly when they help
make the point. (Laughter.)

MR. STEIN: But over any 20-year period in the last hundred years,
a person who bought the broad index of the Standard & Poor's 500, the
largest 500 corporations in America, would not have lost money, and his
average return would have been 10 times his money. That is so much
more than Social Security, it's insane. Over a 25-year period the
average return is more than 20 times his money. And there's been no
20-year period in the last hundred years when a stock market investor
would have lost money. So there will be fluctuations from year to
year, but over long periods of time, investors in stocks through mutual
funds, exchange traded funds, variable annuities will come out way,
way, way ahead of the game, wildly ahead of the game.

THE PRESIDENT: A lot of people -- I hear, you know, I hear these
people saying, well, all they want to do is let Wall Street get rich.

MR. STEIN: They're already rich. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: All right, richer. In other words, I think one of
the things people have got to understand, and perhaps you can help on
this one, is that there will be negotiated fees on behalf of the
people. In other words, you're not going to get gouged. I think
that's a convenient red herring.

MR. STEIN: Yes, the usual fees on these things, especially if
you're a careful shopper, and especially under your plan, are going to
be extremely minimal. I mean, fees for many of these things are close
to zero. And Wall Street is not going to get rich off this, they're
already rich, they don't need the money. The person who needs the
money is the person Ben or Brian's age who is going to get in at the
age of 20 or 21 or 22 or 25 and is going to let compound interest do
all the heavy lifting for him. If you get in, in your 20s, by the time
you're in your 40s, you're set.

THE PRESIDENT: Compound interest? Some people many not know what
that is.

MR. STEIN: Well, compound interest means you earn interest, and
then you earn interest on the interest. And if you let that work for
you in the stock market for 20, 30, 40 years, even if you're just
putting a small amount away each month, you're going to have a much
more comfortable retirement than you ever dreamed of having. If you
start when you're in your 40s or 50s, the problem doesn't get solved.
If you start when you're 20, it does get solved. And that's sort of
exactly what we're talking about with your Social Security plan. If we
start now, it's going to be easy to solve the problem. If we wait
until the system is already broke, it's going to be incredibly
difficult and expensive to solve the problem. Why not do it now, when
it's easy?

THE PRESIDENT: See, the idea is to say to younger workers, instead
of putting money into a bankrupt system, or a system that will be
bankrupt, we're going to, one, permanently solve the problem and, two,
give you a better deal, by letting you watch your own money grow,
investing in a safe mix of bonds and stocks that will compound over
time. (Applause.)

Wendy Merrill is with us. Should we turn to Wendy?

MR. STEIN: Yes, absolutely.

THE PRESIDENT: Wendy, where are you from?

MS. MERRILL: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

THE PRESIDENT: Where are you from?

MS. MERRILL: I'm from Reisterstown, Maryland --

THE PRESIDENT: Reisterstown, very good.

MS. MERRILL: -- which is near Baltimore.

THE PRESIDENT: Great, thanks for coming over.

MS. MERRILL: Thank you, my pleasure. I'm 32 years old, and I --

THE PRESIDENT: You don't look a day over 21.

MS. MERRILL: Oh, aren't you sweet, thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, you know how we politicians are. (Laughter.)

MS. MERRILL: I have two family members with me today. I wanted to
say "hi" to, my husband Stephen and my father Neil are in the audience
with us today.

THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming, yes. Say hello to them after
the event?

MS. MERRILL: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Good, thank you.

MS. MERRILL: And I have been in the financial services business
for 10 years. I'm an insurance broker. I work with my family's
insurance agency. And I'm a big fan of these personal accounts.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

MS. MERRILL: I think it's a great solution to the problem. I am a
member of -- I'm a little older than these guys over here, but I'm
definitely a member of the generation that was taught that I couldn't
count on Social Security for my retirement. For that reason, ever
since I joined the workforce I've been saving in 401(k)s and IRAs and
really taking charge of my own future, which is what I advise my
clients to do as well, when we discuss retirement planning. I just
tell them, you know, don't count on Social Security -- unless it gets
fixed, of course.

THE PRESIDENT: That's kind of sad, isn't it? Excuse me for
interrupting. You've got younger Americans saying, don't count on
Social Security. I guess the word is getting out -- slowly, but surely
-- we've got a problem with Social Security, to the point where you've
got some people saying, don't count on it. As a matter of fact, I saw
a survey where it said younger workers feel like they're more likely to
see a UFO than get a Social Security check. (Laughter.) Excuse me for
interrupting.

MS. MERRILL: No problem, I agree. I mean, I --

THE PRESIDENT: It is amazing that we sit here in Washington not
getting anything done knowing that you've got younger Americans not
thinking they're going to see a check on Social Security. That's the
wrong kind of politics. (Applause.)

Sorry, go ahead.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's exactly the concept that I'm asking
Congress to think about. One of things that people have got to
understand is like in the Federal Thrift Savings Plan, there is -- the
options are relatively limited. In other words, you can't go out and
create your own notion about what you want to invest in. The
government says, here, if you want to take some of your own money,
here's a variety of options and, you know, mainly bonds, mainly stocks,
a mix of bonds and stocks. And the truth of the matter is, when you're
younger you may want to take a little risk. I presume you say to
younger people, take a little risk. When you're older, kind of --

MS. MERRILL: Absolutely. I mean --

THE PRESIDENT: -- crank down on the risk.

MS. MERRILL: -- it's always on an individual basis, obviously.
But younger people can definitely afford to take more risk, and
compound interest works for you. And you're better off putting a
dollar in yesterday as opposed to two dollars tomorrow, because of
that.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Good. Well, thanks for coming.

MS. MERRILL: My pleasure.

THE PRESIDENT: Appreciate you being here. (Applause.)

Brian Smart.

MR. SMART: Yes, sir. How are you?

THE PRESIDENT: Feeling pretty good, yes. (Laughter.) How about
you?

MR. SMART: Good, good.

THE PRESIDENT: Good, thanks for coming. I understand you just got
a job?

MR. SMART: Yes, which my parents -- mom and dad and sister --

THE PRESIDENT: They must be thrilled, yes. (Laughter.)

MR. SMART: They were very happy about -- very happy.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, congratulations. And you paying payroll
taxes yet?

MR. SMART: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, you are.

MR. SMART: Yes, a lot of them.

THE PRESIDENT: More than you realized, right?

MR. SMART: It's a scary thing. I mean, I graduated from Radford
University. I graduated this December, so relatively new, and got a
job. And I'm out there making money, and this is kind of something
that's come up to my attention that it's not going to be there. And
it's something that really bothers me.

THE PRESIDENT: Like that bite of the check, first time that
happened, got your attention?

MR. SMART: Well, I mean, it's got my attention previously. But
it's something that I'm realizing now that -- and I'm not doing
anything. I'm paying into something that I can't even use, and there's
nothing I'm going to be able to do with it when I retire.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, see, it's kind of a sad thought, isn't it?
The government now -- has got a system now that has evolved away from
something that worked really well. Franklin Roosevelt created
something that worked well -- working well when there's 15 workers for
every beneficiary. And slowly but surely over time, as a result of
demographic change, promises we made we cannot keep. You got a
23-year-old guy, got his first job, saying he's nervous about the
system.

Government ought to -- government at the very minimum ought to earn
the trust of the people. He trusts -- (applause.) Keep going.

MR. SMART: Well, I mean --

THE PRESIDENT: So have you been paying attention to this issue
when you were at college?

MR. SMART: A little bit.

THE PRESIDENT: Tell me the truth.

MR. SMART: No -- to be honest, no, I haven't. (Laughter.) But, I
mean, it's something that to me I've seen firsthand with my
grandmother. She's retired, living the life I'd love to live. You
know, she -- her and my grandfather invested wisely when they were
young in stocks. And right now she's basically living off her
dividends. She doesn't count on Social Security.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. SMART: Which is something that scares me because she's already
at retirement.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

MR. SMART: Something I have 40, 50 years before it even -- I even
start drawing Social Security.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, your grandma made some -- and grandfather
made some wise choices. There's some people in this country that's all
they depend upon is their Social Security check. And it's really
important that those folks know that they're going to continue to get
their check. There are a lot of people that the only check they live
on is the Social Security check. Which as you can imagine, when they
start hearing people talking about reforming the system, they're really
thinking, well, maybe my check is going to go away. And people have
got to know it's not. It's just not going to go away. Government will
never do that to people. But I'm not so sure you're going to have a
check.

MR. SMART: And that's something as a 23-year-old person who's
paying into Social Security now really scares me.

THE PRESIDENT: I hope so.

MR. SMART: Because I don't -- I mean, I don't know enough. I
don't really know enough right now to try to make a decision. And I'm
hoping you can guide me in the right direction.

THE PRESIDENT: That's it.

MR. SMART: And tell me this is what you need to do.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, all right, I'll tell you, I'll give you a
hint -- in 2041, the system goes bankrupt. That's not very long.

MR. SMART: I know.

THE PRESIDENT: It's long for me and old Ben. That seems like
ages, doesn't it?

MR. STEIN: That's a long time.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but not for him.

MR. STEIN: No, not at all.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you remember when you were 23?

MR. STEIN: Extremely vividly. I remember when I was here at Blair
High School at 17 and 16. But you know, his grandparents hitched their
wagon to a star, which was the star of investing in stocks and bonds
and it worked incredibly well. The idea of allowing all Americans --
not just well-to-do or even upper middle class ones -- to hitch their
wagons to that star makes total sense. Why should we say to the
ordinary citizen, look, because you're not rich, you can't get in on
the same kind of investment opportunities that rich people can get in
on. Let's let everybody get in on it, let's let everybody get a chance
to make some real money.

The Standard & Poor's Index compounded at a rate -- I know you
don't like statistics -- but 14 percent a year from 1926 to 2004. If
you could have your Social Security, or even a quarter of it, or a
fifth of it compound at that rate instead of at 1.8 percent a year, the
difference would be astronomical -- astronomical.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I do like statistics. (Laughter.)

MR. STEIN: Okay, sorry. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Just not too many of them.

MR. STEIN: Okay. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: What I like more -- even more than statistics is
the notion of an ownership society. We want more people owning
something. (Applause.)

You know, Brian said something interesting -- he basically turned
-- he said, I hope you old guys fix it. And we have an obligation to
fix it. I think there's a lot of younger folks sitting around saying,
well, I'm -- one, I either don't care, I'm not paying attention to it,
when they start paying attention to it, realize there's a problem, and
they're going to say, well, you know, surely the people we sent to
Washington will do something to permanently fix it. Surely, there's
enough goodwill in the nation's capital that people will set aside
their political parties and come together and permanently solve this
problem. Surely, they're not going to let us pay money into a bankrupt
system.

I hate to tell you, unfortunately, some are playing politics in
Washington. But we're going to keep working it and keep working it and
keep calling upon the people. (Applause.)

Go ahead.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Like when you were sitting in the library, reading
all -- reading all those books, did you ever think about sitting on the
stage with the President? (Laughter.)

MR. SMART: No, not at all.

THE PRESIDENT: How about the library part? Was that fiction?
(Laughter.)

MR. SMART: Fiction. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: I know what you mean. (Laughter and applause.)

Ben Ferguson.

MR. FERGUSON: Howdy. I'm not one of those two Mississippi guys.

THE PRESIDENT: You are from Mississippi? Where?

MR. FERGUSON: Well, Memphis, but I go to school at Ole Miss.

THE PRESIDENT: Ole Miss. Very good, yes. (Applause.)

MR. FERGUSON: There we go. I'm glad there's one.

THE PRESIDENT: So why are you here? Come all the way from Ole
Miss.

MR. FERGUSON: I got together with some students who started an
organization called Students for Saving Social Security --

THE PRESIDENT: Really?

MR. FERGUSON: -- because we realized that basically our second
chance at Social Security, the only chance we ever have to have this,
is if it gets fixed and we get our personal accounts. That's the only
way we're going to get it. We know it's not fair, we know we're paying
someone money that we're not going to see, and so we need our second
chance. And that's the only way we're going to get it. I mean,
besides if we win Ben Stein's money, but he told me there's not
enough. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: Pretty good line.

MR. FERGUSON: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: So how did you get involved in the Social Security
issue? It's a -- it's pretty interesting that you would pick up on the
issue and decide to do something about it.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: You're on a role. Keep going. (Laughter.) See,
I've got a little -- one of the dynamics of this issue is the people
that are -- the people that benefit from Social Security today have
nothing to worry about. You notice I keep saying that. In my line of
work, you've got to say the same thing over and over and over again,
finally get it to sink in.

But one of the dynamics on the issue is that there's a lot of folks
out there who need to pay attention to it who might not be paying
attention to the issue. And, therefore, members of the Senate and the
House aren't hearing from younger Americans.

And so part of the goal is to remind people that if you're getting
your check, you're going to get your check, but if you've got a child
coming up, you better start asking the politicians what they're going
to do about your child or your grandchild.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, that's why I want to repeat what I said
earlier. I believe in ownership. I want people from all walks of
life, every background, saying, this is mine, I own this; I'm going to
work my life, I'm going to own this asset, I'm going to pass it on to
whomever I want to pass it on to. (Applause.) The more ownership
there is in America, the better our future is. The more people can
say, this is my stake, this is my home, my business, my retirement
fund, my health care account -- the more people say, I own this, the
more solid the future of America will be.

Have you got something else, because I've just -- that was my
peroration.

MR. STEIN: No, I was just going to say, it is a basic fact of both
political and economic life, that societies that have a -- in which
the ordinary citizen feels he has a stake in the society and isn't just
a ward of the state, isn't just a straw in the wind blowing about by
the state, are societies that last a long time. And we want this
society to last forever, and it will if we have an ownership society.
(Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely. Go ahead, yes.

MR. FERGUSON: And, too, one thing is I want to let you know, and
there's been a lot of people that have said in the media that young
people just don't care. We started our organization two months ago.
We have over a hundred college campuses, chapters that have said, we
want to be involved in this debate. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: That's good, thank you.

MR. FERGUSON: Young people care, and I want to say, thank you to
you, for actually listening to us, instead of talking about us.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate you. If you're interested, I'm
sure you've got a web page where people interested in the issue can --

MR. FERGUSON: Yes, you want me to plug it?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, yes, you've got the grammar -- (laughter) --

MR. FERGUSON: It's secureourfuture.org. There you go.

THE PRESIDENT: It's like Marketing I, right?

MR. FERGUSON: That's right. I'll give you some money later.

THE PRESIDENT: Try it again -- secureourfuture --

MR. FERGUSON: Dot org. Right, there you go.

THE PRESIDENT: So people can get on the web page, figure out how
to help.

MR. FERGUSON: Start a campus chapter.

THE PRESIDENT: Get involved in the issue.

MR. FERGUSON: Get involved and be heard.

THE PRESIDENT: My final point is, where does a guy get a pair of
shoes like that?

MR. STEIN: You can get them at a place called FrontRunners, in
Brentwood, California.

THE PRESIDENT: Never mind. Listen, thank you all for coming. God
bless. (Applause.)